Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, together with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, and Choe Yong Rim, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Thursday received a message of greeting sent by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, and Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council of China, on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the DPRK.

The message says:

We extend warm congratulations and best wishes to you and, through you, to the WPK, the DPRK government and the fraternal Korean people on behalf of the CPC, the Chinese government and people on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the DPRK.

The founding of the DPRK opened a chapter in the era in which the Korean people achieved independence and sovereignty and advanced for building a socialist power.

The Korean people have achieved abundant successes in the socialist revolution and construction through single-minded unity and fortitude for the last 63 years under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il and the WPK.

We are very pleased with this and hope that the Korean people will continue making fresh and bigger successes in all fields for building a great prosperous and powerful nation.

The two countries of China and the DPRK are the friendly neighbors linked with the same mountain and rivers.

The Sino-DPRK relations of friendship and cooperation are steadily deepening and bilateral exchange and cooperation are becoming brisk in different fields with each passing day thanks to the joint efforts of the two parties, two governments and two peoples. We will, together with the DPRK side, advance with the era in the spirit of inheriting the tradition, facing up to the future, building good-neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation and make a fresh contribution to making more vital the Sino-DPRK friendship which has become fresher day by day through a long history, bringing better wellbeing to the peoples of the two countries and protecting regional peace, stability and development.

We wish the DPRK prosperity and its people happiness.